Download Remastered Recordings of a Joy Division Show From 1980

Recorded at the University of London Union

Back in 2006, mastering engineer Drew Crumbaugh (previously known as Analog Loyalist) was asked to "assist with the sourcing, cleanup, and mastering of various Joy Division gigs" for inclusion in what would become 2007's deluxe double-album reissues.

Crumbaugh has written a blogpost reflecting on his work for the set, in which he says that he "[listens] to the stuff I turned into the band and [label] Rhino in late 2006 and essentially cringe. Not because it's bad, because it's not, but with where I've advanced to today my 2006 work sounds amateur to these ears."

As a treat to himself and you, he's had another stab at remastering the recordings from Joy Divison's show at the University of London Union on February 8, 1980, where the band tried out material that would appear on Closer, the band's last studio album, released two months after Ian Curtis' suicide in May 1980.

You can download them for free (in FLAC form) from Crumbaugh's blog, and read excerpts from his take on the process and the result below:

"I went back to the original raw transfers from Duncan Haysom's 1980 master cassette tapes, the very tapes on which he recorded the Joy Division gigs that we released. I started from scratch-- essentially, if Warners came knocking today and asked me to master these gigs, I did what I'd do for them with the skills, techniques, secret sauces and magic I've either advanced or flat-out learned anew since 2006.

"They are spectacular. Not to toot my own horn, but these now simply crushwhat was used on the 2007 releases. Even the most hearing-challenged of listeners can tell the difference, and not just by minutiae. Cymbals ring, drums go THWACK and not "thwop", guitars slice through the murk.

"So we start, chronologically by performance date, with the set used in association with the Closer Collector's Edition. Recorded by Duncan, this set from the University of London Union is a stormer. You get the still in-development Closer tracks (which had yet to be recorded by Martin Hannett) mixed in with stridently-performed Unknown Pleasures and other pre-Closer choices. You get "Dead Souls" brilliantly leading off the set, and you get "Digital" taking us out. And thanks to Duncan, it's magically captured on C45 tape for us to enjoy 32+ years on."